** PM Modi inaugurates India’s first 5G testbed

The 5G testbed has been developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes led by IIT Madras

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 17 inaugurated the country’s first 5G testbed to enable startups and industry players to test and validate their products locally and reduce dependence on foreign facilities.

The testbed has been set up at a cost of around ₹220 crore.

Speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the Prime Minister said the 5G testbed is an important step for self-reliance in the direction of critical and modern technologies.

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** Devasahayam Pillai: An anti-caste crusader who was canonised

Devasahayam Pillai was recently canonised by  Pope Francis

For Devasahayam Pillai, recently canonised by Pope Francis , the enemy was caste.

And finally, with the canonisation, he will be known as Martyr Saint Devasahayam and not by his caste honorific Pillai. For a man who served food for all communities together in a common dining room, this is conceivably a dream realised.

Born Neelakanta Pillai to Vasudevan Namboodhiri and a Nair mother Devaki Ammal, he became Devasahayam, the Tamil rendering of Lazuras as “God’s help.”

He was referred to as Devasahayam Pillai when Pope Benedict XVI first made the announcement of his beatification on December 2, 2012. But the official press release on May 3, 2021, announcing Pope Francis’s decision to confer sainthood on him referred to him as Devasahayam.

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** India rejoices historic triumph in Thomas Cup badminton

India erupted in celebration after its maiden title triumph in the prestigious Thomas Cup badminton tournament, with people from all walks of life joyfully exhausting their stock of superlatives to adorn Sunday’s heroes.

From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra, the historic feat drew the attention of the country’s political class, sporting fraternity, entertainment industry, and the corporate sector, among others.

They lavished rich praise on the men who made it possible — Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, the doubles duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy — and also the ones who were not required in the team’s 3-0 demolition of 14-time winners Indonesia but played stirring roles en route to the victory in Bangkok.

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** India hosts SCO-RATS meeting; focus on situation in Afghanistan

Counter-terrorism experts from India, Pakistan and other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on May 16 deliberated on boosting cooperation in combating various regional security challenges at a meeting hosted by New Delhi.

The meeting is taking place under the framework of the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.

A major focus of the discussions was to be on the situation in Afghanistan, especially in dealing with the threat from terrorist groups active in the Taliban-ruled country, people familiar with the meeting said.

Pakistan has sent a three-member team for the meeting.

India assumed the chairmanship of the Council of Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of SCO (RATS SCO) on October 28 for a period of one year.

India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

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** Andhra Pradesh: 250 years of institution of collector celebrated in Palnadu

Palnadu Collector holds photo exhibition to mark the occasion

The national emblem, a sculpture of four lions standing on a base which has other animals, called as Lion Capital of Ashoka, is the symbol of authority, power and responsibility. The emblem stands on the wall at the Office of the Collector and District Magistrate, which is the authority in which the will of the State and authority meet. 

One of the lasting relics of colonial legacy, the institution of collector was established 250 years back on this day — May 14 , 1772 — by the East India Company. Along with the changing times, the institution of collector and district magistrate too has evolved combining multi-dimensional aspects of administration, such as revenue, magisterial, judicial and administrative.

The collector was informally known as ‘Huzur’, a person vested with supreme authority whose aura enveloped the region. He is the central authority around which the massive revenue and administrative foundation was built and later Lord Thomas Munro initiated reforms separating the revenue, magisterial and judicial powers.

In the colonial era, the collectors were vested with the power to determine the demand from land revenue, survey and assessment of all kinds of land, sea and land customs, liquor and drug excise taxes, personal and professional taxes and managing all state property.

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** Andhra Pradesh: The golden girl : Goldsmith’s daughter bags six gold medals

Daggolu Supraja, an Electrical an Electronics Engineering graduate of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur, bagged six gold medals at the 12th Convocation of the University on Saturday. Incidentally she is the daughter of a goldsmith Siva Prasad hailing from Nellore town.

While Ms. Supraja was in her final year of engineering, her father passed away and mother Saroja is a homemaker. Despite financial constraints, she completed her graduation in flying colours by bagging the best engineering student gold medal, best outgoing girl student in all branches, and best academic performance.

She not only topped her EEE branch with 9.14 CGPA score, but also topped students from all the departments in the university. Receiving the gold medals and degree certificate from the Governor was an ecstatic experience for her and parents’ dream fulfilled, she said

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** Faithful to celebrate canonisation of Devasahayam

Devasahayam Pillai had converted to Christianity in the 18th century

The Catholic Christian community in the district is set to celebrate the canonisation of Blessed Lazarus, popularly known as Devasahayam Pillai, by Pope Francis in the Vatican on Sunday.

Devasahayam Pillai, a Hindu who converted to Christianity in the 18 th century, will become the first Indian layperson to be conferred sainthood.

According to church records, Devasahayam was born as Neelakanda Pillai in 1712 in the village of Nattalam in Kanyakumari that formed part of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom. He assumed the name ‘Lazarus’ or Devasahayam that translates to ‘God is my help’ after embracing Christianity in 1745.

Devasahayam was declared Blessed in Kottar in Nagercoil in 2012. The Vatican had cleared him for sainthood last year.

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** Indian shooters on top with eight gold and eight silver

Arya Tyagi, Shardul Vihan and Vivaan Kapoor gave a good account of themsleves before losing to the US 6-4 in the final of the trap team competition in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.

India had topped qualification with 210, three points ahead of the US, but in the final, Lance Thompson, Emilio Carvalho and Matthew Kutz prevailed.

The Indian women’s team also ended up with silver after losing 6-2 to Italy, which had shot 12 points better than India in qualification.

In the mixed team trap event, Bhavya Tripathi and Vivan Kapoor shot 133 for eighth place, as they missed qualification for the medal round by one point to teams from Britain, Australia and Spain. The other Indian pair of Sabeera Haris and Arya Tyagi placed 11th with 132 .

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** 24th Summer Deaflympics | Shuttler Jerlin Anika wins three gold medals

The badminton player has won several medals for the country at national and international level events

J. Jerlin Anika of Madurai has won the gold medal in the women’s singles badminton event in the ongoing 24th Summer Deaflympics at Caxias do Sul in Brazil. She also won the gold medal at the mixed doubles badminton event and the team badminton event.

Jerlin Anika defeated K. Neudolt of Austria to secure the gold medal in the single’s event. In the mixed doubles event, Jerlin Anika and Abhinav Sharma won the medal by defeating Boon and Teo of Malaysia. She was part of the Indian badminton team which defeated team Japan 3-1 to win the gold medal.

The badminton player has won several medals for the country at national and international level events. She is participating in her second Deaflympics. Earlier, she participated in the 2017 Deaflympics held at Samsun in Turkey. She was the youngest player at the event.

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** Badminton | Indian men assured of first-ever medal at Thomas Cup

India is assured of at least a bronze at the Thomas Cup badminton event, where it has not won a medal since 1979

The Indian men’s badminton team scripted a memorable 3-2 win over Malaysia to enter the semifinals of Thomas Cup for the first time in 43 years but the women’s side bowed out after losing 0-3 to Thailand in the Uber Cup here on May 12.

India is thus assured of at least a bronze at the Thomas Cup. The country has not won a medal at the event since 1979.

India had bagged three bronze in the past when they reached inter-zonal finals. However, it is the first time since the change in the qualifying format that the country won a medal at the prestigious tournament.

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